Distributed transaction system

ABSTRACT

A system for interfacing predetermined services to a user at a fixed location includes a processing platform running an operating system. Also included are a plurality of physical system resource interfaces for interfacing with available physical system resources. The physical system resources allow a user to gain access to the predetermined desired services. The system further includes a data store for storing configuration information for enabling the operating system to interface with the available physical system resources through the physical system resource interface associated therewith. A communication resource for interfacing with the operating system allows communication of the operating system with a central office for downloading configuration information to selectively enable ones of the available physical system resources to interface with the operating system through associated ones of the physical system resource interfaces in accordance with the configuration information and the predetermined service selected by a user. A plurality of configurations are stored in the data store, and each is associated with a predetermined service and one or more of the available physical system resources. Each physical system resource interface is uniquely associated with a defined one of the physical system resources.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 61/143,480, filed on 9 Jan. 2009, and entitled “DISTRIBUTEDTRANSACTION SYSTEM.”

This application also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional ApplicationSer. No. 61/265,028, filed on 30 Nov. 2009, and entitled “DISTRIBUTEDTRANSACTION SYSTEM.”

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/684,928,filed on even date herewith, and entitled REMOTELY CONFIGURABLE USERDEVICE FOR ACCESSING A DISTRIBUTED TRANSACTION SYSTEM, the specificationof which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/684,929,filed on even date herewith, and entitled REMOTELY CONFIGURABLE USERDEVICE WITH PHYSICAL USER RESOURCES AND INTERFACE, the specification ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/684,930,filed on even date herewith, and entitled SYSTEM FOR PROVIDINGTRANSACTION SERVICES TO A PLURALITY OF USER DEVICES, the specificationof which is incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/684,931,filed on even date herewith, and entitled SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING EMPLOYEESACCESS TO ACCRUED BUT UNPAID EARNINGS, the specification of which isincorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/684,932,filed on even date herewith, and entitled SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING GOODS ANDSERVICES BASED ON ACCRUED BUT UNPAID EARNINGS, the specification ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following disclosure relates to a system and method of distributedtransaction services deployed on a plurality of terminals wherein theterminals may be dynamically reconfigured to provide different services.

BACKGROUND

The availability of self-service financial technology and devices suchas automated teller machines, (ATMs), online banking and bill paymenthas grown rapidly in the recent past. However, the devices and systemsused to conduct such financial transactions have typically been limitedto a single service or services in a single financial arena. Forexample, conventional ATM machines are typically limited to cashwithdrawals, deposits and balance inquiries. Self-service ticketmachines are typically limited to dispensing tickets and require the useof a credit or debit card to complete a purchase. Current devices andsystems also do not provide convenient, comprehensive financial servicesto unbanked and under-banked customers who may not have a bank accountor a debit or credit card account. Some, however, do allow for multipleservices from a common location, but each service has a dedicated VPNconnection to the service provider.

Current ATM networks and similar services use standardized machines andprocesses that provide one or more services in the same mannerregardless of where the machines are placed, who uses the machines, thefrequency of transactions and other factors. However, an increasingnumber of different services are available, some of which may be moredesirable to different segments of a population depending upondemographics, income levels, location and other factors. Thus, thereexists a need for a system and method that can provide differentservices at different locations and times based upon predeterminedfactors.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a system for interfacing predetermined services to a userat a fixed location is disclosed. The system includes a processingplatform running an operating system. Also included are a plurality ofphysical system resource interfaces for interfacing with availablephysical system resources. The physical system resources allow a user togain access to the predetermined desired services. The system furtherincludes a data store for storing configuration information for enablingthe operating system to interface with the available physical systemresources through the physical system resource interface associatedtherewith. A communication resource for interfacing with the operatingsystem allows communication of the operating system with a centraloffice for downloading configuration information to selectively enableones of the available physical system resources to interface with theoperating system through associated ones of the physical system resourceinterfaces in accordance with the configuration information and thepredetermined service selected by a user. A plurality of configurationsare stored in the data store, and each is associated with apredetermined service and one or more of the available physical systemresources. Each physical system resource interface is uniquelyassociated with a defined one of the physical system resources.

In one embodiment, the physical system resources comprise a display. Theconfiguration information may include at least one defined configurationscript that defines a sequence of actions to allow a user to gain accessto a predetermined desired service using one or more of the physicalsystem resources. The operating system is adaptable to monitor throughthe physical system resource interfaces available physical systemresources and to inform the central office of such availability throughthe communication resource. The physical system resource interface isadaptable to allow the operating system to determine if a physicalsystem resource is operating after it is actually interfaced with anassociated physical system interface. The physical system resourceinterface is connected to allow the operating system to determine if aphysical system resource is actually interfaced with an associated oneof the physical system resource interfaces.

In another aspect, a system for managing a plurality of remote terminalsthat include hardware for providing a plurality of services to customersis disclosed. The system includes a central office processor that isoperative to access service modules of a plurality of service providersfor providing different services to customers at different terminals.The system further includes a data transmission interface between thecentral office processor and the plurality of service providers wherebythe central office processor may access service modules for services ofthe plurality of service providers. The system also provides a terminaldata transmission interface between the central office processor andeach of the plurality of remote terminals whereby different servicesoffered by the plurality of service providers may be provided atindividually selected terminals. The central office processor isoperative to remotely enable or disable services at selected ones of theindividual terminals to dynamically configure the terminals to providedifferent services at different terminals without physical access to theterminals.

In another aspect, a method of managing a plurality of remote terminalsthat include hardware for providing a plurality of services to customersis disclosed. The method includes the step of utilizing a central officeprocessor to access service modules of a plurality of service providersthat may provide different services to customers at different terminals.Then, a data transmission interface between the central office processorand the plurality of service providers to access service modules forservices of the plurality of service providers is utilized. The methodfurther includes the step of using a terminal data transmissioninterface between the central office processor and each of the pluralityof remote terminals to individually configure different terminals withdifferent services offered by the plurality of service providers whereindifferent services may be provided at individually selected terminals.The services are remotely enabled or disabled at selected ones of theindividual terminals to dynamically configure the terminals to providedifferent services at deferent terminals without physical access to theterminals.

In yet another aspect thereof, a plurality of individually configurableterminals for providing a plurality of services is provided. Eachterminal includes a housing and a terminal processing unit positioned inthe housing. The terminal processing unit is operative to implement asession manager module to provide a plurality of terminal servicesavailable on the terminal. The terminal also includes a data storagedevice positioned in the housing that is operatively connected to theterminal processing unit so that service modules associated withdifferent services available by means of the terminal are stored on thedata storage device and the service modules are accessible by means ofthe session manager. The terminals also include a display for displayingservices available on the terminal to potential users of the terminal. Auser interface allows users to select from the plurality of servicesavailable through the terminal. The user interface is operable to directthe session manager to provide a selected service available on theterminal. A data communications interface with a central processorremote from the terminal enables the central processor to enable ordisable services provided by the terminal. At least one printer isoperatively connected to the terminal processing unit. The printer isoperative to provide a record of a transaction conducted using one ofthe terminal services. An interface connects the terminal processingunit and the printer. The interface enables the terminal processing unitto communicate with the printer to provide a record of a transactionusing a selected service. Selected service modules may be enabled ordisabled on the terminal from the remote central processor withoutphysically accessing the terminal.

In yet another aspect, a system for enabling use of accrued and unpaidearnings by employees of an employer wherein employee records of theemployer are accessible through an employer processor includingcomputerized payroll records maintained on an employer database isprovided. The system comprises a local services processor that has adata transmission interface with the employer processor so that therecords of accrued, but unpaid earnings of employees are transmittedfrom the employer processor to the local services processor. The datastorage device is connected to the local services processor and includesa database wherein records of accrued, but unpaid earnings of employeestransmitted from the employer processor are stored. A terminal includinga display, a user interface and a terminal processor implements aservice module to provide at least one service to employees. A datatransmission interface between the terminal processor and the localservices processor enables the terminal processor to access records ofaccrued, but unpaid earnings of employees. A terminal data storagedevice is connected to the terminal processor so that at least oneservice module is stored enabling access to records of accrued, butunpaid earnings of employees to provide at least one service toemployees. An employee may access accrued, but unpaid earnings toreceive at least one service using the terminal.

In yet another aspect thereof, a method of providing an employee of anemployer one or more services based on employee accrued, but unpaidearnings is disclosed. The method includes first providing a localservices processor having a data transmission interface with an employerprocessor. The records of accrued, but unpaid earnings of employees aretransmitted from the employer processor to the local services processor.The method further includes the providing a data storage device that isconnected to the local services processor that includes a database whererecords of accrued, but unpaid earnings of employees transmitted fromthe employer processor are stored. A terminal including a display, auser interface and a terminal processor is provided. The terminalprocessor unit implements a service module to provide at least oneservice to employees. A data transmission interface between the terminalprocessor and the local services processor is provided. The datatransmission interface enables the terminal processor to access recordsof accrued, but unpaid earnings of employees. The method also includesproviding a terminal data storage device operatively connected to theterminal processor where at least one service module is stored. Theservice module enables access to records of accrued, but unpaid earningsof employees to provide at least one service to employees whereby anemployee may access accrued, but unpaid earnings to receive at least oneservice for a fee. A record of employee expenses incurred by theemployees utilizing the terminal is transmitted to the employerprocessor at predetermined intervals such that the employer can debitemployee accrued earnings for services received using the terminal.Further, the method provides for receiving value for the servicesrendered to employees using the terminal from the employer, includingfees for providing the service.

In one embodiment, a distributed transaction system for enables users toconduct transactions using services from third party service providers.The system may include a plurality of resource managers, each includinga processing platform running an operating system, a plurality ofphysical system resources enabling a user to access selected ones of theservices available through the resource manager and a data store forstoring configuration information identifying services available to auser from the resource manager. In one aspect, the configurationinformation for each available service includes information forinterfacing with physical system resources to enable a user to interfacewith selected ones of the services. A plurality of physical systemresource interfaces enable the operating system to interface withrequired ones of the physical system resources to execute apredetermined series of actions required to provide a user selectedservice. A central processing center includes a first communicationsinterface with the resource managers whereby the central processingcenter can communicate with the resource managers to remotely enable ordisable selected ones of the physical system resources required toaccess ones of the services. The central processing center may includeone or more second communications interfaces enabling the centralprocessing center to download configuration information from one or moreservice providers to enable one or more services on selected ones of theresource managers. In one variation, the configuration information istransmitted to selected ones of the resources to enable physical systemresources to perform a predetermined series of actions required toaccess one or more services provided by the service provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding, reference is now made to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingDrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a distributed transaction system in oneembodiment according to the disclosure;

FIG. 2A is diagrammatic illustration of a terminal for use in the systemof FIG. 1;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating one possible configuration forthe terminal of FIG. 2A:

FIG. 2C is a block diagram illustrating the manner in which differentterminals may be configured in one embodiment according to thedisclosure;

FIG. 2D is a schematic representation of a mobile terminal for use inthe system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2E illustrates a diagrammatic view of the terminal;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the management of terminals toprovide services to users;

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating a possible user session with thesystem of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4B is a an exemplary screen display of a virtual ticker or receipt;

FIG. 4C is an exemplary screen display for selecting a method ofdisbursing funds;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of one method of authentication used in asystem according to the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing a user with aservice employing a system according to the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an ATM transaction according to thedisclosure;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a diagrammatic views of a transaction processbetween the service provider, central office processor and terminal;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of dynamicallyreconfiguring the services provided by the system of FIG. 1 at aselected terminal;

FIGS. 8A illustrates a diagrammatic view of the interface betweenservice modules and external resources;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of dynamically reconfiguringa service provided by the system of FIG. 1 on a terminal based on thefrequency at which a selected service is used on the terminal;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process for displaying brandingmaterials;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of selecting promotionalmaterial to be displayed based on transaction size and/or type;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method for configuring a terminalin the system of FIG. 1 based on a user profile;

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic block diagram illustrating the configurationof one system according to the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a first possible transactionperformed using the systems of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a second possible transactionperformed using the systems of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a third possible transactionperformed using the systems of the disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a diagrammatic block diagram illustrating one configurationof a data collection and storage system for use with systems of thedisclosure;

FIG. 18 is a diagrammatic block diagram illustrating the configurationof another system according to the disclosure;

FIG. 18A illustrates a diagrammatic view of a remote terminal utilizinga PDA;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a first transaction performed usingthe system of FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a second transaction performed usingthe system of FIG. 18; and

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a third transaction performed usingthe system of FIG. 18.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numbers are usedherein to designate like elements throughout, the various views andembodiments of a distributed transaction system are illustrated anddescribed, and other possible embodiments are described. The figures arenot necessarily drawn to scale, and in some instances the drawings havebeen exaggerated and/or simplified in places for illustrative purposesonly. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate the many possibleapplications and variations based on the following examples of possibleembodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a distributed transaction system 100 alsoknown as a Public Transaction System (PTS), e-Transaction System and/oran e-Public Transaction System. In one embodiment, system 100 includes aplurality of user terminals or kiosks 110. As set forth in greaterdetail herein, each of terminals 110 is dynamically configurable toprovide different services at different locations and times dependingupon a variety of factors. Thus, each of the terminals 110 may have adifferent “character” depending on the service modules (or externalresources) available at the terminal 110. Terminals 110 are linked to acentral office processor 114 via a data transmission interfacerepresented by arrow 117 through a private or public network 118 such asthe internet. In different variations, terminals 110 may be linked tothe central office processor 114 by means of a local area network, a GSMconnection or by means of the public telephone system (POTS). Centraloffice processor 114 also interfaces with service providers 112 vianetwork 118 which may be utilized to access and/or obtain servicemodules corresponding to the services offered by the different serviceproviders.

Central office processor 114 may also interface with a variety offinancial institutions 116, such as banks, credit card companies andother financial service providers. A data storage device 120 associatedwith central office processor 114 may include information regarding theconfiguration, (i.e. the identity of and the services enabled ondifferent terminals 110) along with the information required tointerface with service providers 112 and financial institutions 116. Auser data base stored on storage device 120 may include user profileswith such information as age, gender, biometric parameter data such as apalm vein scan or fingerprint scan, the user's service history and otherinformation. Additional data such as transaction data, logs, analysisdata and results and performance data may also be stored on storagedevice 120.

As will be described more fully herein below, the system is a dynamicsystem which requires a strong interaction between each of the terminals110 and the central office processor 114 in order to facilitate atransaction between a user and a service provider at one of the nodes112. Each of the terminals 110 is configured as an independent interfaceto a particular user utilizing that particular terminal 110. Each of theterminals 110, as will be more fully described herein below, hasassociated therewith service modules or external resources that willallow the user to effectively interface with the service provider 112 toboth input information to the system for use in the transaction and toreceive an output from the transaction, if such is appropriate, thisbeing a transaction dependent operation. During the transaction, therewill be many interactions between the terminal 110 and the centraloffice processor 114, this interaction allowing less of the transactionto be implemented on the terminal 110 and more to be implemented on thecentral office processor 114, such that more control is provided by thecentral office processor 114. Thus, it is not necessary to maintain anykind of database of profile information, for example, at terminal 110but, rather, this can be maintained at the central office processor 114such that global use thereof is provided to the different terminals 110and, further, a higher level of security can be provided. As such, theterminal 110 could be considered to be somewhat of a “thin client” inthat it merely needs to monitor its resources and provide controlthereof and then interface with the central office processor 114 toimplement and complete the transaction with the desired service provider112. This will be described in more detail below.

Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, each of terminals 110 is provided with anumber of user interface devices (physical system or external resources)mounted in a housing 201 to allow a user to interface with the terminal110. In one variation, the devices include a keyboard 202, a magneticcard scanner 204, an ID scanner 206, a smart card scanner 208 and atouch screen 210. Other user interface devices include a proximitysensor 212, a motion detector 214, a check scanner 216, a currencyreader 218, a voice recognition model 220 and a video camera 222.Terminal 110 may also include a biometric parameter interface devicesuch as a palm vein scanner 224 for authentication purposes. Each of theuser interface devices may be connected to a CPU 244 (terminalprocessing unit) in terminal 110. Each of the interface devices may beinterfaced with CPU 244 via a physical system resource interface 203including hardware and software enabling the physical system resource tocommunicate with CPU 244.

Each of terminals 110 may also include a variety of output interfacedevices (also external resources) that enable the terminal to provideservices to users. Such output devices may include a currency dispenser226, a magnetic card dispenser 228, a smart card dispenser 230, ticketprinters 232 and a receipt printer 234. In one embodiment, terminal 110may also include a document printer 236, a media display device 238, amoney order dispenser 240 and an audio output device such as a speaker242. Referring specifically to FIG. 2A, in one variation, the mediadisplay device 238 may comprise a large, flat screen monitor fordisplaying promotional information such as advertisements for differentgoods and services. As illustrated, each of terminals 110 also includesa data storage device 246 (data store) associated with CPU 244. In oneembodiment, CPU 244 interfaces with central office processor 114 via apublic or private network 118 (communications resource).

Referring still to FIGS. 2A and 2B, in one embodiment each of devices202-242 are independently controlled. Thus, if one of devices 202-242fails, for example, if check scanner 216 jams, the individual device ormodule may be disabled along with the services that it supports withoutaffecting the remaining modules and services. An operating system runson CPU 244 (processing platform), which, among other function, monitorsthe status of available physical system or external resources via thephysical system resources interfaces 203. In this manner, terminal 110functions as a resources manager for managing available physical systemor external resources. For example, if ticket printer 232 failsmechanically, the ticket printing services provided by terminal 110 maybe disabled while the remaining services provided by the terminal arestill available to users. In one embodiment, each of terminals 110transmits a message to central office processor 114 at predeterminedintervals with the status of each of devices 202-242. In the event thata service becomes unavailable due to a hardware failure or similarproblem, the particular service may be “grayed out” on screen 210.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram illustrating the manner in which differentterminals 110 may be configured in system 100. Service providers 112 mayprovide a wide range of different services. Each of the serviceproviders 112 may have configuration information associated with theprovider and/or with a service of the provider. The configurationinformation (configuration) may include information defining theprovider 112, and/or a service that the provider provides. Theconfiguration may also include a “script,” e.g., an instruction setdefining a set of predetermined actions that are to be completed in adefined sequence to enable access to the service provider and/or serviceof the service provider. A configuration for a service provider 112and/or for a service may be downloaded from the service provider to thecentral office processor 114 and, in turn, downloaded in whole or inpart to selected ones of terminals 110 to enable a user to access theservice provider of a provider service. The instructions incorporated inthe script may be executed by the terminal 110 in conjunction withcentral office processor 114 to enable a user to access a user-selectedservice. A given configuration may identify the physical resourcesrequired to access a provider 112 and/or service. In many cases multipleconfigurations or scripts may require the same physical system resourcesfor execution of an instruction set or script. In some embodiments, theoperating system may disable access to a provider 112 or service if arequired physical system resource is unavailable.

Referring still to FIG. 2C, company A may provide service s1, company Bmay provide services s2 and s3 and company C may provide service s4.Such services may include providing tickets for different entertainmentevents, currency transfers and dispensing a variety of stored valuecards such as debit cards, gift cards and telephone cards. However, someservices may be more desirable to different population segments atdifferent times due to factors such as demographics, cultural factors,income levels, holidays and the location of a specific terminal 110.Consequently, it may be desirable to configure different terminals 110to provide different services at different locations or to configure aterminal based on a user profile. For example, as illustrated, terminal110A may be configured with service modules to provide service s1 and s4from companies A and C, respectively. Terminal 110B may be configuredwith service modules to provide services s2 and s4 from companies B andC. Terminal 110C may be configured with service modules to provideservices s1, s3 and s4 from companies A, B and C, respectively.

As set forth in greater detail below, the configuration of servicesenabled on different terminals 110 in system 100 may be dynamicallychanged based on a number of factors such as service usage, transactionsize or other factors. In one embodiment, terminals 110 are configuredto transmit a “heartbeat” signal at predetermined intervals to centraloffice processor 114 which may identify the service modules resident onthe terminal and the status of hardware devices installed on theterminal. This is a “push” operation on the part of the terminal 110. Inother embodiments, a “pull” type operation may be used at selectedintervals. Upon receipt of the “heartbeat” signal, central officeprocessor 114 may transmit additional service modules to terminal 110,enable or disable service modules resident on the terminal and/orassociated hardware for implementing one or more of the service moduleson the terminal.

With respect to the “heartbeat,” this is a push operation wherein agiven terminal 110 based on a predetermined interval will send out acommunication to the central office. As noted herein above, the terminal110 may be placed at any location in a city where sophisticatedcommunication links are available or in a remote location where thesophistication of the communication links is questionable. Thus, acommunication link to the central office processor 114 could be madethrough the Internet, a TC/IP connection/communication protocol, or adial-up modem could be utilized, which would be a much slower data link.Once the data link has been defined, i.e., this being a hardwareconfiguration that interfaces with a communication resource on theterminal 110, a session can begin. This session is begun by a requestsent out by the terminal 110 to the central office processor 114requesting a communication session. Once an acknowledgement is receivedfrom the central office processor 114, then data is transmitted toprovide status information. Again, this status information indicates tothe central office processor 114 the status of the particularconfiguration information that exists at the particular terminal 110 andthe status of the various physical system or external resources. Forexample, if a printer had failed and this printer were required for aparticular service, an indication would be provided that the printer hadfailed and that this service was no longer available. Of course, each ofthe terminals 110 has some type of ID associated therewith such that thecentral office processor 114 will recognize the terminal 110 as anauthorized node on the network and would, of course, have informationstored in a database local to the central office processor 114 thatalready has information regarding the configuration therefor. Thus, allthat is really necessary is to provide status information of all of theresources or to provide just information as to what resource has failed.With this information, the central office processor 114 can thendispatch a service technician.

It should be understood that any type of communication protocol could beutilized in order to effect a communication between the two nodes. Thetype of communication can be any type of communication, i.e., statusinformation, update information, etc. In the disclosed embodiment, thepush operation is provided to transmit a minimal amount of informationto the central office processor 114, as there may be many thousands ofterminal units 110 associated with a network. Thus, the minimal amountof information may just be status information. Once a connection hasbeen made through the heartbeat and a session started, it may be thatthe central office processor 114 can then download additionalconfiguration information to reconfigure the terminal 110, if necessary.As one example, consider a situation where one of the services providedby a terminal processor is an ATM function. In this ATM function, one ofthe external resources that is associated with providing the service isa display. This display will display the owner of the ATM. Thisparticular external resource is controlled by configuration informationfor the particular services, as will be described hereinbelow. If theownership of the ATM service has changed, it might be that the owner ofthe service would want all of the terminal units that had the ATMfunction associated with this particular service provider changed toreflect the new owner in the “splash” page. This would require amodification of the configuration “script” that is associated withproviding the service and it would then require the central officeprocessor 114 to download to each of the terminal units 110 thisinformation. This could be facilitated every time the “heartbeat”function is asserted by a particular terminal unit 110. Once the sessionis open, the session could remain opened and the configurationinformation in the form of the new ownership information downloaded.Since the heartbeat function occurs at regular intervals, the entirenetwork of ATM units associated with the particular service providercould be updated in a very short period of time with a minimal amount ofinformation being transmitted over the network.

FIG. 2D is a schematic representation of a mobile terminal 250 that maybe used to access central office processor 114 to provide services tocustomers. Mobile terminal 250 may be a tablet-sized device including aprocessor 262 and an associated data storage device 264. Mobile terminal250 may be configured with a touch screen display 252, a keyboard 253, aprinter 254, and a card reader 256. Mobile terminal 250 also includes awireless data transmission interface 258 that provides a datatransmission link via a public or private wireless network 260 withcentral office processor 114 (FIG. 1). Mobile terminal 250 may bedynamically configured with different service modules from centraloffice processor 114 in order to provide different services based onfactors such as service usage, transaction size or other factors asdescribed below.

Mobile terminal 250 is particularly suited for use in locations wherethe location of a fixed location terminal 110 is impractical; forexample, in rural areas where the majority of potential users orcustomers are unbanked for reasons such as lack of access to financialinstitutions, distrust in financial institutions, lack of communicationsinfrastructure or other reasons. In this embodiment, a designatedoperator of mobile terminal 250 may accept currency from a customer anduse the mobile terminal to pay the customer's bills, transfer funds,print receipts, coupons, money orders, tickets or similar documents. Thedesignated operator of mobile terminal 250 may also use the terminal toreceive a funds transfer on behalf of the customer. In this embodiment,the operator may disburse cash or currency to the customer uponconfirmation of a funds transfer to a designated account on behalf ofthe customer.

Conventionally, the mobile terminal 250 could be a PDA (Personal DigitalAssistant). Typically, these PDAs provide a processing functionassociated therewith, in addition to a phone function that can runvarious applications. One of these applications could be a localterminal application that allows the local terminal 250 to communicatewith the central office processor 114. As noted hereinabove, there are anumber of methods for communicating with the central office processor114. One can be to use the data link associated with the internal phonemodem, i.e., that associated with utilizing the data services of aparticular PDA 250. However, most of the PDAs or local terminals 250will have associated therewith an 802.11 communication link that uses awireless access protocol (WAP) that can interface with a local wirelesshub that is connected to a network such as the Internet through TCP/IPprotocol. This would allow the local terminal 250 to access other unitssuch as the central office processor 114. It should be understand thatthis could be an intermediate control processor that could be accessedby the local terminal 250. Further, it could be that the local terminal250 is merely an extension of one of the terminals 110, such that thelocal terminal 250 actually constitutes an external resource of theterminal 110.

Another application that could be implemented on a mobile terminal,requiring only a display, is that associated with a money transferoperation either from the individual utilizing the mobile terminal 250to obtain some value in the form of cash or to transfer this to someoneelse. To facilitate such a transaction, the mobile terminal 250 will beutilized to identify the user, i.e., to provide some type ofidentification in the form of a user ID PIN number. Further, some typeof biometric input, such as the biometric input 257, could be utilizedto provide a fingerprint input for a user. Thus, the mobile terminal 250could be utilized to authenticate a particular user. Once authenticatedwhile running the application, the application would then, for example,allow access to a financial institution to “withdraw” cash. Thiswithdrawal would be in the form of a provided code. This code would beprovided to the user on the display 252, which could then be utilized tocomplete a transaction. This transaction that could be completed wouldbe to go to a terminal 110 having a cash dispenser or some other cashdispenser that would recognize this code to dispense cash to thatindividual. Further, this code could be a code that could be transmittedto a relative in a remote location to use another terminal to obtain thecash in either U.S. currency or in any foreign currency. By utilizingthe local terminal 250, all of the functionality of the terminal 110 ora portion of that functionality could be implemented in the mobileterminal 250.

Referring now to FIG. 2E, there is illustrated a more detailed diagramof the terminal 110 and the manner by which it interfaces with thevarious physical system or external resources. There is illustrated theprocessor 244, which is operable to interface with a plurality ofexternal resources 270, which, as described hereinabove, can be any typeof hardware resource that allows a user to interface with the variousservice providers through the central office. In general, the terminal110 does not possess the capability to allow a user to interface withany kind of service to conduct a financial transaction without beingconnected to the central office. This is not to say that such could notbe implemented. However, for example, if a user were provided a codethat could be input to a terminal 110 through the keypad (one of theexternal resources 270), this would allow the user to retrieve cash froma cash dispenser (another one of the external resources 270). However,if the terminal 110 did not interface with the central office or theservice provider through the central office processor 114, then thatwould require the terminal 110 to have associated therewith all of theinformation necessary to authorize a particular user on that terminal110 in addition to preprocessed information about an already in processfinancial transaction. This would mean that all of the terminals 110would be required to have all of that information. This is not practicalfor most financial transactions. These are not pay-as-you go typeterminals that would allow a user to input value and receive valuetherefrom with a percentage of the input value retained as a fee andmaintained in the system independent of the operation of any externalprocessing system.

The processor 244 has associated therewith a light operating system thatprovides the basic operating parameters to interface with the centraloffice, interface with the storage database 246 containing the variousservice modules, and also interface with the physical system or externalresources 270. In order to interface with the external resources 270,there is provided a hardware interface 272 associated with each externalresource 270. This external resource basically is a physical terminal orconnector that can receive a connection or cable from the externalresource 270 and this will typically allow bi-directional communication.Data can be transmitted to the external resource 270 for a printer, forexample, and information can received back from that printer indicatingan error. Therefore, there will always be some type of monitor functionassociated with a particular external resource 270 in addition to a datatransfer path. The data transfer path is illustration by a path 274 andthe monitoring information is represented by a path 276. Any type ofwell-known connection can be used to provide this. In recent years, mostexternal resources in the form of printers, keyboards, and the such,utilized a conventional communication link such as a serial USBconnection. These USB interfaces utilize a common driver interface suchthat plugging the USB cord from the external resource 270 into thehardware interface will allow the processor 244 to recognize the deviceand essentially identify that device. Further, after the hardwareinterface has been provided, there will then be some type of driversoftware that will be required for the processor 244 to effect aninterface with the external resource 270. Even though the hardwareinterface may be a USB interface or some proprietary interface, therestill must be some type of driver software to allow communication withthe external resource. For example, a printer may be recognized as aparticular printer through a USB interface or other type of serial orparallel port interface, but driver software is required in order toutilize the full functionality of that particular external printer orother external resource. If the external resource 270 were a display,then a particular cable or interface such as a VGA cable would berequired to interface with the display. Appropriate drivers would berequired for the display. Sometimes, the operating system itself haspredefined drivers for displays, as these are somewhat universal. Forsome resources, however, special drivers would be required to utilizethe full functionality of that particular resource.

The processor 244 then manages the resources 270 by keeping a table ofavailable resources. If a resource fails, this will be communicatedthrough the hardware interface to the processor 244 and may, in fact,require the use of the driver software to interface with the externalresource 270 to provide this monitoring function. If the resource failsor if it is not connected, this would be recognized by the processor244. For example, when a particular configuration is provided, it mayrequire a cash dispenser, a keyboard input and a display output inaddition to a biometric scanner. The particular software script thatcomprises part of the service module will require all of these resourcesin order to function. Therefore, there will be a list of availableresources that must exist in order for a particular terminal 110 toconstitute a fully operating terminal for that service in accordancewith the configuration information provide by the central officeprocessor 114. If one of these resources disappears, this will disable aparticular service module and this will be communicated back to thecentral office processor 114 during the “heartbeat.”

The storage region 246 will be the area where the various servicemodules “script” is stored. This is the sequence of instructions thatmust be carried out in order to effect the portion of the transactionsthat is associated with a particular terminal 110. For example, one ofthe first transactions that will occur and that constitute a servicemodule is an authorization module. This authorization module willrequire authentication of an individual by requiring them to entercertain information, such as name, password, PIN information, and evenbiometric data. This will be utilized to authenticate the individual atthe central office processor 114, after which the user will then bepresented a display of the available services that can be used or, morelikely, the services will first be provided in a “greyed-out” format tothe user and these then, upon authentication, will be un-greyed-out sothat the user knows they now have access, i.e., they have beenauthenticated. After that, the user then can select one of the servicemodules and, upon selection thereof, the service module willsequentially access the various external resources to effect thetransaction in conjunction with the central office processor 114, aswill be disclosed hereinbelow. Thus, each of the service modules s1, s2,s3 . . . sn will be stored therein, which each constitute a portion ofthe script or transaction process required to be executed by theterminal 110 for a particular service. This is the configurationinformation that is downloaded from the central office processor 114.However, it should also be understood that a particular terminal 110could have all of the service modules fully loaded therein and all thatthe central office processor 114 would be required to do would be toactivate a particular service on a terminal 110.

Two of the resource interfaces 272 are illustrated as being associatedwith communication external resources, one being an external resource280 labeled COM1 and a second one 282 labeled COM2. Each of these areinterfaced with separate networks 284 and 286, respectively. Forexample, one communication protocol could be a dial-up modem and theother could be an Ethernet card. Either of these can interface aseparate and different network utilizing a separate and differentprotocol. Both, alternatively, could be the same hardware resource for aredundancy purposes. This resource allows the processor 244 tocommunicate with the central office processor 114.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the management of terminals 110,250 to provide services to users. A session manager module 300 residenton terminal 110 manages service modules 302. Each of service modules 302is associated with a service such as cash withdrawal or advance, checkcashing, providing tickets or another service. A customer or userinterface 304 associated with each of service modules 302 enables a userto enter or input the information required to utilize the desiredservice. Each of service modules 302 also has an associated hardwareinterface 306 that allows the service module to communicate with thedevices necessary to collect information and provide the desiredservice. Such devices may include biometric parameter scanners,keyboards, touch screen GUIs, printers for printing receipts, couponsand tickets, card dispensers, currency acceptors, currency dispensersand similar devices. Service module 302 may also include a centraloffice interface 308 enabling the service module to communicate with thecentral office processor 114.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating a possible user session. If aselected service requires user identification and/or authentication, ashereinafter described, an identity session 410 is opened by sessionmanager module 300. Next, a transaction session 408 may be opened inwhich one or more services 400-406 may be used in a transaction. Thetransaction session 408 typically begins with the user providing orreceiving value in connection with a service 400. In differentvariations, the value may be in the form of currency, a credit or debitcard transaction, a check or money order. For example, service 400 mayinclude the receipt of value in the form of currency entered by a userof terminal 110. Service 402 may comprise, for example, a bill paymentservice by which the user pays his or her telephone bill with the valueentered at 400. Transaction session 408 ends when no value remains orwhen any remaining value is returned to the user. For some transactions,for example, a cash withdrawal where the user simply swipes a card andenters a PIN, authentication may not be required and an identity session410 will not be created. During a given transaction session, sessionmanager 300 tracks value received and dispensed by means of terminal110.

Turning to FIG. 4B, in one embodiment terminal 110 displays the currentsession value as transactions are conducted using the terminal. In onevariation, the transactions and session value may be displayed usingtouch screen 210 of FIG. 2A. In other embodiments, a separate dedicatedgraphical user interface may be employed to display transactions and thesession value. As value is added or removed during the session, a screendisplay 412 consisting of a virtual ticker or receipt may be displayedincluding the transactions and current session value. For example, inthe illustrated example, a user begins a session with a check deposit($300.00). The user then pays a bill such as a telephone or otherutility bill ($55.00). The user may also transfer funds ($100.00),leaving the user with a session value or balance ($145.00). The user maythen terminate the session and receive the remaining session value bypressing an icon or “button” 414 included in the screen display. After auser presses button 414, a screen display 416 (FIG. 4C) may be presentedto the user prompting the user to select the form in which the remainingsession value is to dispensed, i.e. cash, a credit to a debit card, amoney order or a transfer of the remaining session value to an accountof the user at a financial institution. The user may then select themanner in which he or she wishes to receive the remaining session valueafter which the session is terminated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of one method of authentication used in system100. The process begins at step 500, which may include sensing thepresence of a user at terminal 110 by means of a motion detector,proximity sensor or similar device. At step 502, terminal 110 detects acard swipe. The card may be a credit card, a stored value card such as adebit card or an identity card. The card is read at step 504 and theuser is prompted to enter a personal identification number (PIN) at step506. If a PIN is not entered at step 508, the process returns to Start.If a PIN is entered, the user is prompted to enter a biometric parameterat step 510. The biometric parameter may be a palm vein scan, afingerprint scan, a retinal scan or other unique biometric parameterassociated with the user.

If a biometric parameter input is not detected, at step 512 the processreturns to Start. If a biometric parameter input is entered, thecollected data including information entered at the card swipe, the PINnumber and the biometric parameter are transmitted to the central officeprocessor 114 at step 514. At step 516, central processor 114 uses theuser's PIN to retrieve a biometric parameter associated with the user'sPIN from a user database on data storage device 120 (FIG. 1). In somevariations, the user database may be resident on terminal 110 or thebiometric parameter may be obtained from a service provider or financialinstitution. At step 518, the biometric parameter transmitted fromterminal 110 is compared to the stored biometric parameter. If thetransmitted biometric parameter does not match the stored biometricparameter an error message is transmitted to terminal 110 at step 520and an error message is displayed at step 522 on the terminal. If thetransmitted and stored biometric parameters match, central officeprocessor 114 transmits an authentication message to terminal 110 andthe authentication process is completed (step 524).

It will be appreciated that for some transactions, a card swipe may notbe necessary. In those instances, a combination of a PIN number and abiometric parameter may be sufficient to identify and authenticate auser of terminal 110. It will also be appreciated that the combinationof a PIN number with a biometric parameter enables central officeprocessor 114 to compare a transmitted biometric parameter to a storedbiometric parameter without searching an entire database of suchparameters. In the case of some transactions, the combination of a cardswipe with the input of a valid PIN may be sufficient to enable a userto access a selected service. In yet other embodiments, a biometricparameter may be stored on a user ID card. In this case, the parametermay be retrieved during or after a card swipe and compared to acorresponding parameter obtained from the user at the time of thetransaction.

It will be appreciated that the terminal 110 is designed to be a “thinclient,” which will result in a minimal amount of information beingstored at the terminal 110. This may be for the purpose of security suchthat no confidential information is stored thereat in the form ofbiometric or profile information of subscriber/users or otherconfidential information. Further, since there will be a plurality ofterminals 110 for a given central office processor 114, is undesirableto store user information at a particular terminal 110. However, it ispossible that certain users may frequently use a particular terminal110. In this event, there may be a most recently used database containedthereat, which allows the biometric information to remain stored in alocal database for a short period of time. If it is not reused within ashort period of time, it is deleted and, if it is used within that shortperiod of time, it will be “strengthened” or refreshed in the databasesuch that it will remain in the database for a longer period of time.This facilitates the speed of authentication.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of providing a user with aservice employing a system according to the disclosure. The processbegins at step 600, and at step 602 the presence of a user at terminal110 is detected. In some embodiments, the step of detecting the presenceof an individual at the terminal may be omitted. At step 604, terminal110 receives an input. The input may be a card swipe, a biometricparameter or a user entry made via a keyboard or touch screen. If thepresence of a user is not detected at step 602, or if no input isreceived at step 604, the process returns to the starting point. Basedon the input received at step 604, a determination is made at step 606as to whether the user needs to be identified and/or authenticated. Ifidentification or authentication is required for the transaction, theuser is identified or authenticated at step 608 as previously described.

At step 610, the user selects the desired service. In some cases, it maynot be necessary to identify or authenticate the user. For example, ifthe user is purchasing a ticket or money order with currency,identification and/or authentication for the transaction may not berequired. At step 612, the service is processed and value is exchanged.The exchanged value may be in the form of a debit or credit to a creditcard or other stored value card or the user may receive or inputcurrency into terminal 110 by means of a currency dispenser or reader.As an example, any type of exchange with a credit card that does notrequire identification, consider the use of a credit card where thecredit card company merely requires a scan of the credit card and doesnot require the user to input any kind of PIN or code from the back ofthe card. Credit card companies have realized that the ease of using acredit card without requiring a signature or any type of user inputinformation significantly simplifies the process resulting in moreincome to the credit card company. The credit card companies havedetermined that the risk for small transactions, such as buying aticket, entail little or not risk to the credit card company of notcollecting that money. Thus, just swiping a credit card with noauthentication whatsoever can be an aspect of the financial transactionand can constitute an authentication.

At step 614, a determination is made as to whether the service has beencompleted. If the service has been completed, the user's balance ischecked to determine whether he or she has any value remaining in thetransaction. As previously noted, session manger module 300 of FIG. 3tracks the user's balance during the transaction. For example, if theuser entered a $20 bill into terminal 110 to pay a $17 outstandingbalance on a telephone bill, the user would still have a balance of $3of value remaining If the user has no value remaining, the process ends.If the user still has value remaining, he or she is prompted todetermine whether an additional service is desired at step 618. If anadditional service is desired, the process returns to step 606. Ifanother service is not desired, the terminal 110 dispenses value in anamount equal to any remaining balance at step 622 and the process endsat step 624.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an ATM transaction using terminal110. The process may begin at step 700 where the presence of a user maybe detected by means of a motion sensor or proximity sensor or similardevice. At step 702, a card swipe is detected. The card may be a creditcard, debit card or other stored value card. If a card swipe is notdetected, an error determination is made at step 704. If a process erroris detected, for example, if the card reader is not operable, a processerror message may be sent to central office processor 114 at step 706and the transaction is terminated. At step 708, the user is prompted toenter a PIN number. If a PIN number is not detected, an error check ismade at step 710. If a process error is detected, an error message tocentral office processor 114 may be sent at step 706. If a PIN number isreceived, the user is prompted to enter an amount at step 712. Again, ifan amount is not entered, an error check is made at step 714 and if aprocess error is detected, the process loops back to step 706 where aprocess error message is transmitted to the central office processor114.

At step 716, the collected data is validated. The validation processwill include transmission of the collected information to central officeprocessor 114, which will in turn validate the transaction with theuser's selected financial institution. In some instances, a userbiometric parameter may also be required to validate the user. If theinformation or data cannot be validated, an error check is made at step718 and if a process error is detected, the process loops back to step706 where an error message is generated. In one embodiment, if a processerror is detected at any one of the preceding steps, the servicesoftware module and the associated user interfaces and/or hardware maybe taken out of service by the central office processor 114 and/or bythe session manager model 300 of FIG. 3.

Assuming that the transaction is validated at step 716, value, forexample currency, is dispensed to the user at step 720. In otherembodiments, a stored value card may be dispensed or the balanceassociated with the card increased. The user is then prompted todetermine whether an additional service is desired at step 722. If anadditional service is desired, the process loops back to step 608 ofFIG. 6. If not, the transaction is completed at step 726.

Referring now to FIG. 7A, there is illustrated a diagrammatic process ofthe overall transaction that is effected between a service provider, thecentral office processor 114, the terminal 110 and a user. This has beendescribed hereinabove. As noted hereinabove also, the transaction isdispersed between the terminal, the central office and the serviceprovider, i.e., certain steps of the transaction must be carried out ateach location. The transaction is initiated in one embodiment bydetermining that a user is present at a particular terminal 110. This isillustrated by an arrow 728 indicating that the user is present. Thiscan be a motion detector or a touch screen display that indicates to theuser to touch the screen in order to initiate some type of transactionor terminal access. The terminal 110 will recognize this and thensomehow change the terminal display for output of information to theuser. The user is typically then required to input some type of ID orbiometric information such as a palm vein scan, as indicated by an arrow730. At this point, the terminal 110 has information associated with theuser and, since this is all associated with the authenticationprocedure, a session will be opened and authentication of the user willbe effected. This will be a set of instructions that is carried out onthe terminal 110 that will require information to be sent to the centraloffice processor 114, as indicated by an arrow 732. This is typicallysome type of request. At the central office processor 114, a sequence ofinstructions will be carried out wherein the authentication informationreceived from the terminal 110 will be carried out to access informationin the database to determine if the user is an authenticated user. Thisinitiates a single session for this particular user and that particularterminal 110 at the central office processor 114. It should beunderstood that multiple processes could be carried on at the same timefor different terminals 110 and it is only necessary for each process orsession carried out at the central office processor 114 to be maintainedthereat. Once the process has been carried out, as indicated by aplurality of process arrows 734, an authorization will be provided asindicated by an arrow 736 to the terminal 110. The terminal 110 thenutilizes this authorization and determines what the next step is, asindicated by a plurality of arrows 738. Once the authorization has beenreceived and the next step initiated, the next step will be to displayavailable services to the user and indicate to the user that they havebeen authenticated, as indicated by an arrow 740. This is the end of theauthentication process. Typically, a user will be authenticated on theentire system. Therefore, if the system is configured to provide an ATMfunction, a bill paying function, a ticket printing function, etc., allof these functions could be made available to the user merely upon theauthentication of the user at the terminal 110. However, it could bethat a particular user is only authorized for certain services and onlythose services would be provided to the user although other services areavailable at the terminal 110. In any event, the user will then beprovided the ability to select a service, which is indicated by aselection arrow 742. The terminal 110 will determine which servicemodule to initiate and, upon initiation, it will carry out the necessaryinstructions to generate a request packet to the central officeprocessor 114, as indicated by an arrow 744. It may be that the terminal110 collects information such as a value of money to be transferred, avalue of money to disbursed through an ATM, etc. This information iscollected by the terminal 110 and then transferred to the central officeprocessor 114. The central office processor 114, once receiving thisinformation, then processes the information to determine which module atthe central office processor 114 is required. For example, if it were anATM, based upon the particular user and their authentication, multipleservice providers could be selected for this particular ATM transaction,although a single financial institution would typically be utilized.Thereafter, the central office processor 114 will transfer informationto the service provider as indicated by an arrow 746 to transmit aninitial request, followed by processing at the service provider andinformation transferred back to the central office processor 114, asindicated by an arrow 748. There are indicated a number of differentinstructions or sequences that must be carried out at each of theservice provider, the central office processor 114 and the terminal 110.They are indicated additional transactions between the terminal andcentral office processor 114, as indicated by arrows 750, and additionalrequests and return of information from the service provider to thecentral office processor 114, as indicate by a sequence of arrows 752,and then an additional transaction at the end of some sequence oftransaction comprised of the arrows 744-752, as indicated by an arrow756 indicating that information now needs to be displayed to the user.This may be in the form of a balance in an ATM or some other informationthat is required from the service provider in order to go forward withthe transaction. Once this is provided to the user, there may anadditional input, as indicated by an arrow 760 that was preceded by adisplay arrow 762, wherein an input of information is provided to theterminal 110 and then the terminal 110 will execute the sequence todetermine what to do with this input, and this example financialtransaction indicates that information will be transmitted to thecentral office processor 114 by an arrow 763 followed by a sequence oftransactions between the central office processor 114 and serviceprovider indicated by arrows 764, followed by a final completion oftransaction arrow 766 from central office processor 114 to terminal 110,wherein value will be transferred to the user as indicated by an arrow768. This diagrammatic view indicates a general sequence of instructionsthat may be associated with any transaction. This is not to beinterpreted by way of limitation as there are many different requestsback and forth between the terminal 110 and central office processor 114and the service provider that need to be facilitated in order to effectan entire financial transaction. Also, at the end of particularfinancial transaction, another financial transaction could be selected.

Referring now to FIG. 7B, there is illustrated a second diagrammaticview of the unique manner by which an overall transaction sequence 770is illustrated. This transaction sequence is the entire sequence ofinstructions in the system that must be effected from the time the userselects a service to the time that value is transferred or a denial ofthe service is provided. This sequence is an “interleaved” sequence inthat certain steps are carried out by the terminal 110, certain stepsare carried by the central office processor 114 and certain steps arecarried out by the service provider. It can be seen that the first stepswill be carried out by the terminal 110 followed by steps at the centraloffice processor 114 and certain steps at the service provider and soon. It is also noted that the terminal 110 need only have a certainportion of instructions or sequence disposed thereat. These instructionsor sequences can be reduced to a minimal amount, depending upon thedesign thereof. For example, if it is desirable to have all of theauthentication data disposed at the central office processor 114, allinstructions and sequences necessary to authenticate a user can becarried out at the central office processor 114. Thus, to configure aparticular terminal 110, all that is required is to download thesequences necessary for carrying out a particular transaction in aparticular service module. Thus, a large portion of the sequence can bedisposed at the central office processor 114. The configurationinformation that is associated with a particular service can be referredto as “scripts,” which comprise a definition of a particular sequence ofactions or transactions or instructions that need to be carried out atthe terminal 110 in order to effect a communication with the centraloffice processor 114 such that the central office processor 114 can thenselect a particular service provider to complete the transaction andcarry out the necessary instructions to interact between the serviceprovider and the terminal 110.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of dynamicallyreconfiguring the services available on a terminal 110. In someembodiments, a service provider or the operator of system 100 may wishto provide one or more services at those terminals 110 only when certaincriteria are met. In this embodiment, a service s1 is provided atterminal 110 only if the cumulative value of a selected type oftransaction, for example cash withdrawals, exceeds a predeterminedamount. The process begins at step 800 where a transaction is initiatedby a user. At step 802, the transaction is identified. If thetransaction is a cash withdrawal, in which case terminal 110 may befunctioning as an ATM, the value of the transaction is stored at step804 and a counter is incremented at step 806. At step 808, the counteris checked to determine whether a predetermined number n of cashtransactions have been processed with terminal 110 within apredetermined time frame. If the number of cash transactions is lessthan n, the process loops back to the start.

If n cash transactions have been processed with terminal 110, theaverage amount of the transactions is determined at step 812 andcompared to a predetermined value, for example $300. If the averagevalue of the cash transactions is equal to or exceeds the predeterminedvalue, the process loops back to the start. If the average value of thecash transactions is less than the predetermined amount, service s1 maybe disabled on terminal 110. User interface devices and/or hardwaredevices associated with service s1 may also be disabled, or disabled inconnection with the service. For example, if the service involvesproviding event tickets, the ticket printer may be disabled. At step816, a determination is made as to whether another service should beadded or substituted for service s1. If so, a new service s2 may beenabled on terminal 110 at step 818 by central office processor 114.Enabling new service s2 may also require enabling user interfaces and/orhardware associated with the service. Services that are deleted orinoperable due to hardware problems may be “grayed out” or deleted fromdisplay 210.

It will be appreciated that other criteria may be used for dynamicallyconfiguring the package of services provided on a selected terminal 110.Such criteria may include the aggregate number or amount of transactionsconducted with terminal 110, when the transactions are conducted, thenumber or amount of transactions conducted using a particular serviceand other factors. It will also be appreciated that user interfacedevices and/or other hardware devices may be enabled or disabled onterminal 110 as a result of reconfiguring the terminal as describedabove. The decision to reconfigure the services and/or or hardware of aselected terminal may be determined by pre-programmed logic resident oncentral office processor 114 or on terminal 110.

Referring now to FIG. 8A, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofhow resources can be shared between different service modules. There areillustrated two service modules 830 and 832. These can be very similarmodules or significantly different. Each of the service modules 830,832, when implemented, will require certain external resources in orderto provide the service. Initially, a determination will be made as towhether the external resources are “enabled” or available. The initialconfiguration will enable the various resources, but if one of theresources fails then the monitoring function of the central processorunit will determine such is the case and the service module thatrequires such resource will then be disabled and an indication providedin the “heartbeat” back to the central office processor 114 that such isthe case. However, when all of the resources that are required by aparticular service module are available, each of the service modules,such as service modules 830 and 832, will be associated with theirassociated external resources. In the embodiment of FIG. 8A, there areillustrated five external resources 836 labeled A, B, C, D, and E. Eachof these external resources has a hardware interface 838 associatedtherewith. The hardware interface, as described hereinabove with respectto FIG. 2E, is operable to provide a physical hardware “plug” that willinterface with the particular external resource in addition to some typeof software driver that will allow the central processor effectivelycommunicate with the external resource to make use of the externalresource for input/output and also to monitor that external resource.

In FIG. 8A, service module 830 requires the use of external resource A,external resource B and external resource E. Service module 832 requiresthe use of external resource B, external resource C, external resource Dand external resource E. Therefore, external resource B and externalresource E are shared between the two service modules. This can be asituation where, for example, the keyboard is required in order to carryout the particular transaction associated with a particular servicemodule, or a printer is required for both, whereas possibly one servicemodule requires a cash dispensing system and the other does not if itwere associated with, for example, a bill paying transaction. Each ofthe service modules 830 and 832 will interface with a communicationresource module 840 through an associated hardware interface 838. Thiscommunication and resource module 840 will communicate with the centraloffice processor 114, which will then in turn communicate with theservice providers and wherein there are two service providers 842 and844 illustrated. Thus, a single “pipe” is provided the terminal 110 tocommunicate between selected services modules 830 or 832 and aparticular service provider 842 or 844. Thus, it can be seen thatsharing the resources for the provision of different services andallowing the resources to be remotely enabled/disabled provides asignificant amount of flexibility to providing services to a user at aparticular location associated with terminal 110.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reconfiguring a terminal110 based on the frequency at which a selected service is accessed byusers within a given time frame. The process starts at step 900 where acustomer initiates or completes a transaction. At step 902, adetermination is made as to whether the transaction involved aparticular service s1. If not, the process loops back to Start. If thetransaction involves service s1, a counter is incremented at step 904.At step 906, a date check is made. If the date is less than apredetermined value x, corresponding to the selected time frame, theprocess loops back to Start. If the date is greater than x, the totalnumber of transactions involving service s1 within the time frame isdetermined at step 908 and compared to a predetermined value n. If thenumber of transactions is equal to or greater than n, the process loopsback to Start and the date is initialized or reinitialized at step 910.The new date will be based on a predetermined value, for example thedate could be initialized so that periods of days, months or longer maybe evaluated.

If the number of transactions involving service s1 is less than thepredetermined value n, the service may be disabled on the terminal atstep 912. The step of disabling the service may include disablingassociated devices. For example, if the service is check cashing, acheck reader may be disabled at terminal 110. Other user interfacedevices and hardware associated with different services will remainenabled.

At step 914, a determination is made as to whether to substitute a newservice, s2, for the disabled service s1. If so, the new service isenabled on the terminal at step 916 and the process ended. If no newservice was selected, the process loops back to the start. In thismanner, terminal 110 may be configured and reconfigured based upon thenumber of transactions conducted with a selected service and/or aselected service provider.

In some embodiments involving transactions using a branded service, itmay be desirable to display logos, trademarks, promotional material orother material regarding the service provider. For example, if a user isconducting a bank transaction with terminal 110, it may be desirable todisplay a touch screen having an appearance that simulates theappearance of that bank's ATMs and/or logos or trademarks of the serviceprovider. Thus, for example, if a user is a customer of ABC bank and iswithdrawing cash, a screen may be displayed to the user that simulatesthe screen used by ABC bank for its transactions.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process for displaying such brandingmaterials. The process begins at step 1000 where a user initiates atransaction. At steps 1002 and 1004, a card swipe is detected and theuser is authenticated as previously described. At step 1006 adetermination is made as to whether the selected service is provided bya branded service provider. If not, the process loops to step 1012 wherethe service is processed as previously described. If the service isprovided by a branded service provider, the branding is retrieved atstep 1008. The branding may include logos, trademarks, promotionalmaterials or other information in a screen display presented to the userat step 1010 after which the service is processed at step 1012.

In certain situations, a particular company may desire to brand aplurality of the terminals 110 for a feature such as, for example, theATM service. Thus, whenever the “splash” page is presented to a user, itis branded with the particular company. This branding is part of thestored script at the terminal 110. In the event that ownership changesor a particular company is acquired or they change their name, all thatis required to change the branding of a particular service or aparticular terminal is to update that particular script at each of theterminals. This may involve just updating a few lines of code or justdownloading an entirely new service module for the presentation aspect.This is easily facilitated in a number of ways. One method would be todownload the particular information in response to receiving a“heartbeat” from each of the terminals, or alternatively, accessing eachterminal by polling the terminal or initiating an access thereto.

As previously described and illustrated in FIG. 2A, terminal 110 mayinclude a media display such as a flat screen monitor. In someinstances, it may be desirable to select the promotional materialdisplayed on such media display device based on the particulartransaction initiated by the user or the amount of the transaction oreven the profile information of the user. Promotional material may beselected to correspond to selected dates or holidays, or be based on theaggregate amount, number or type of transactions processed on theparticular terminal.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of selecting promotionalmaterial to be displayed at terminal 110 based on transaction sizeand/or type. The process begins at step 1100 where a user initiates atransaction. In the illustrated embodiment, the transaction is a cashwithdrawal from an ATM machine; however, other transactions may be usedin the method. At step 1102, a determination is made as to whether theselected transaction is a cash withdrawal. If not, a set of standardpromotional material and/or displays are presented on the media display238 of FIG. 2A at step 1104. At step 1106, the amount of the cashwithdrawal is compared to a first predetermined value, for example $300.If the transaction is for $300 or more, tier 1 promotions are displayedon the media display device at step 1108. Tier 1 promotions may beadvertising for higher priced goods and services than those advertisedin the standard display.

If the transaction amount is less than the first predetermined value,the amount is compared to a second predetermined value, for example $100at step 1110. If the transaction amount is greater than or equal to$100, then second tier promotional material is presented on the mediadisplay device at step 1112. Tier 2 promotional device may beadvertising for goods and services less expensive than those promoted intier 1 promotions but more expensive than the goods and servicespromoted in the standard promotional display. If the transaction amountis less than the second predetermined value, the process loops back toStart and standard promotional materials are displayed on the mediadisplay device.

As will be appreciated from the foregoing, promotional materialsdisplayed on the media display device of terminal 110 may be selectedbased on a wide variety of factors. Such factors may include the type ofservice selected, the transaction amount, and the size or type oftransaction. For example, promotional materials displayed on the mediadisplay device of terminal 110 may be based on the average or aggregatetransaction amount over a predetermined time period such as a day, weekor month. The promotional material displayed on the media display devicemay be selected based on the number of times or the number oftransactions involving a particular type or types of services provided.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method of configuring a terminal 110 basedon a user profile. The process begins at step 1200 where a userinitiates a transaction. At steps 1202 and 1204, a card swipe isdetected and the user is identified as authenticated as previouslydescribed. At step 1206, the user's identity is compared to userprofiles stored in a database either at terminal 110 or in a database atcentral office processor 114. The user profile may include informationsuch as a user's age, race, the size of transactions completed by theuser using the system and other information. If a user profile islocated, the profile is retrieved at step 1208 after which a number ofdifferent actions may be taken based upon the profile. For example, atstep 1210 a screen display including those services that the user hasutilized in the past may be displayed. At step 1212, advertising orpromotional material may be presented to the user on the media displaydevice. The selection of promotional material may be based on the user'sage, gender, the type of transactions the user has conducted utilizingsystem 100 in the past and other factors.

Other actions may be taken based on the user profile. For example, atstep 1214 coupons for selected goods and services may be printed for theuser based upon his or her profile. In other embodiments, if the user'sprofile indicates that the user has conducted transactions using aparticular service not enabled on the particular terminal 110, theservice may be enabled on the terminal, along with associated interfacesand/or hardware by central office processor 114. Alternatively, if forsome reason the user profile indicates that the user is not approved toaccess a given service or conduct a particular type of transaction, theservice and associated user interface devices may be disabled on theterminal. Thus, it will be appreciated that terminals 110 may beconfigured based upon the profile of the particular user conducting aparticular transaction at that time. Note that “configured” as used inthis context means enabling certain service modules and associatedresources whereas the operation of downloading “configuration”information relates to downloading the necessary “scripts” for desiredservice modules.

FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic block diagram further illustrating theconfiguration of terminals 110 (FIG. 1). As shown, each of terminals 110is configured with a main service or service pack 1300. Main service1300 interfaces with a plurality of I/O devices installed on terminal110. A device package 1304 is provided for each device installed onterminal 110. Device package 1304 includes the software and firmwarenecessary for the terminal 110 to interface with the particular device.As illustrated, a physical interface 1306 is provided for each device.As described hereinabove, the physical interface 1306 may be a USBconnector or other hardwired connectors designed for the particulardevice. Devices 1302 (external resources) may include graphic userinterfaces (GUIs), card swipe devices, keyboards and similar devices asillustrated in FIGS. 2B and 2E.

Main service 1300 may interface with a plurality of different services1310. Services 1310 may include typical ATM transactions, ticket sales,bill paying services, card dispensing services and the like. Services1310 will have associated service logic 1312, a screen display 1314 andassociated data 1316. Services 1310 may interface with a transactionengine 1318, a distribution module 1320 and/or a configuration/errormanagement module 1322. Depending upon the particular configuration ofthe terminal 110 and the desired service 1310, the main service module1300 may interact with a central office processor 1324 in order toenable a user to perform various transactions as described with respectto FIGS. 7A and 7B.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating one possible transaction performedusing a terminal 110 (FIG. 1). The process begins at step 1400 where themain service is implemented on terminal 110. The main service 1300 mayinclude or have access to different service modules 1402. Modules 1402may include ATM services, bill pay services, services for transferringfunds, ticket purchase services and so forth. At step 1404, terminal 110displays the various available services at the particular terminal. Inthis example, a user selects ATM services at step 1406. At step 1408, acard swipe display screen is presented to the user to prompt the user toswipe his or her credit or debit card. At step 1412, the ATM servicemodule 1402 accesses card swipe logic and the card swipe device packageinterface 1414 to record the user's information from the card. Assumingthat the card swipe is successful, at step 1416 an enter PIN screen isdisplayed to the user. Main service 1300 accesses PIN logic 1418 and aPIN device package interface 1420 to enable a user to enter a personalidentification number. It will be appreciated that, in lieu of apersonal identification number and/or in addition to a personalidentification number, a biometric parameter, such as a palm vein scanor fingerprint scan may be required.

At step 1422, an ATM menu is displayed to the user. As previously noted,the menu or the display may be branded with logos, trademarks or otherindicia related to the user's financial institution. At step 1424, theuser selects a withdrawal and at step 1426 selects an amount to bewithdrawn from his or her account. At step 1428, withdrawal logicassociated with the ATM service package is accessed by main service 1300and a communications interface with central office processor 114(FIG. 1) is opened at step 1430. At step 1432, terminal 110 transmitsthe transaction information to a transaction front-end processor(“TFEP”) at central office processor 114. The communications with thetransaction front-end processor will include the information from theuser card, the user PIN number and/or any biometric parameter requiredto conduct the transaction. The transaction front-end processor in turnaccesses an ATM withdrawal service at step 1434. At step 1440, a paymentservice module is accessed and the transaction information is providedto the module. The payment service module maintains records of money orvalue flowing in and out of the system, fees associated with the varioustransactions and billing information. Additionally, at step 1436, a hostsecurity module (HSM) is accessed and at step 1438, selected transactioninformation is encrypted for transmission.

At step 1442, the transaction information is transmitted to an ISO(International Standards Organization 8583 standard) service, includingan ISO Bridge 1444 to create a data connection or link to financialnetwork 1446. Financial network 1446 provides a data communication withbanks 1448 or other financial institutions where a user may have anaccount or where the transaction may be processed.

It will be understood that the ATM transaction involves four steps. Thefirst step is the withdrawal request transmitted as previouslydescribed. The second step is a response from the bank 1448 or otherfinancial institution back through central office processor 114 toterminal 110. Assuming that funds are available, the financialinstitution will authorize the transaction and funds are dispensed bythe terminal in the third step of the transaction. The funds may bedispensed in the form of cash, a stored value card such as a debit cardor a funds transfer to a user or other account. Finally, a response fromthe terminal 110 is transmitted through the system to the financialinstitution indicating the amount actually dispensed. For example, ifthe user requested a $100 cash withdrawal and only $60 was dispensed dueto a machine failure, a lack of cash available at terminal 110 oranother reason, that information would be transmitted back to bank 1448to enable the bank or financial institution to credit the user for anyfunds not received.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating another possible transactionperformed using a terminal 110 (FIG. 1). The process begins at step 1500where the main service or service pack 1502 is implemented on terminal110. The main service 1502 may access a variety of service modules 1503.Modules 1503 may include ticket purchase services, bill pay services,services for transferring funds, ATM services, ticket purchase servicesand other services. At step 1504, terminal 110 displays the variousavailable services to the user of the terminal. In this example, a userselects bill pay services at 1508 and a card swipe display screen ispresented to the user at step 1510 to prompt the user to swipe his orher credit or debit card. In other embodiments, the display may includean option enabling the user to transfer funds from an exiting account topay one or more bills or enter currency to pay the bill.

In this example, the user elects to use a credit or debit card to pay abill; for example a utility bill, a telephone bill or other payment. Atstep 1512, the bill pay service module accesses card swipe logic (step1512) and the card swipe device package interface 1514 to record theuser's information from the card. If the card swipe is accepted, at step1516 a screen display prompting the user to enter his or her PIN numberis presented. Main service 1502 accesses PIN logic at 1518 and a PINdevice package interface 1520 to enable a user to enter a personalidentification number. As previously noted, a biometric parameter suchas a palm vein scan or fingerprint scan may be required in addition to,or instead of, a PIN.

The process continues at step 1522 where a bill pay menu is displayed tothe user of terminal 110. In one embodiment, the identity of priorpayees, (e.g. utility company, phone company, finance company) may beretrieved from central office processor 114, (FIG. 1) and displayed suchthat the user may select (step 1524) the entity to which he or shewishes to make a payment with a user interface such as a keyboard orGUI. In other embodiments, the user may enter the identity of the payeeand associated information such as an account number. The user may thenenter the payment amount at step 1526.

Next, payment logic 1528 is accessed and a communications interface 1530with central office processor 114 is opened. In one embodiment, paymentlogic 1528 is resident on terminal 110. Payment logic 1528 assembles thenecessary information to complete the transaction and a communicationsinterface with the central office processor 114 is opened at step 1530enabling terminal 110 to communicate with transaction front endprocessor 1532. At step 1534, a payment service module 1536 is accessed.As previously described, payment service module 1536 maintains recordsof money or value flowing in and out of the system, fees associated withthe various transactions and billing information for use by centraloffice processor 114. In different variations, central office processor114 may be configured with multiple transaction front end processors1532 such that transactions are placed on a queue and processed with thefirst available front end processor.

A bill pay gateway or service is accessed at step 1538, which in turnopens a data link with financial network 1540. Financial network 1540may provide access to the user's checking account 1542, to a credit cardaccount 1544 or a debit card account 1546 to enable the user to completethe bill pay transaction by transferring funds as presented by arrows1548 to the selected payee 1550. Confirmation of the payment may then betransmitted back through financial network 1540, bill pay service 1534,and front end processor 1532 to terminal 110 where a receipt may beprinted or displayed to the user.

Turning now to FIG. 16, in yet another embodiment, a terminal 110 may beused to schedule a service such as a dental appointment, an inoculation,a physical examination or other service. In this embodiment, the processbegins at step 1600 when a user accesses main service 1602, which mayinclude service modules 1603 such as ATM services, bill pay services,funds transfer services, ticket purchase services, employer loanservices and personal services. As previously noted, terminal 110 may beremotely configured from central office processor 114 to present theseservices to a user of the terminal based upon preselected criteria. Inother embodiments, terminal 110 may be linked directly to one or moreservice providers via a network. The selected services may be displayedor presented via a user interface (step 1604) such as a graphical userinterface (“GUI”).

At step 1606, a user may select a personal service menu, which isdisplayed at step 1608. The user may then select the personal servicethat he or she wishes to obtain at step 1610 and schedule the service.At step 1612, the user may be prompted to enter a PIN which is processedwith PIN logic at 1614 and PIN device package interface 1616 to enable auser to enter a personal identification number. As previously noted, abiometric parameter such as a palm vein scan or fingerprint scan may berequired in addition to, or instead of, a PIN to verify the user'sidentity. At step 1618, the service selection and/or schedule isconfirmed. In one embodiment, the user may elect to pay for the serviceas described in connection with FIG. 15.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a data collection system 1700that may be utilized in one embodiment of the invention. A plurality ofservices 1702 (e.g., ATM, funds transfers, purchases, bill pay servicesetc.) are made available on terminals 110 (FIG. 1). Selected data fromtransactions conducted using services 1702 is transmitted from terminal110 to a shared memory server which may be located at central officeprocessor 114 (FIG. 1) or another location as represented by arrows1703. The data may be transmitted continuously on a real time basis astransactions are conducted or temporarily stored on terminal 110 andtransmitted on a batch basis at predetermined intervals, for exampleevery 12 or 24 hours. Shared memory server 1704 processes the data,which is stored on a system of records (SOR) database 1706. SOR database1706 provides a means of recalling data relating to transactionsconducted using terminals 110 in an expedient manner.

In order to maintain a manageable amount of data on SOR database 1706,data may be downloaded to a data warehouse 1708 at periodic intervals,for example weekly or monthly. In one embodiment, data warehouse 1708 isa very large storage device, capable of storing terabytes ofinformation. In one embodiment, a data analysis engine 1710 may beutilized to analyze data stored on data warehouse 1708 to generatebusiness intelligence 1712 such as the type and number of transactionsconducted using terminals 110 and trends in the type and number oftransactions. Business intelligence 1712 may be used to configure orre-configure terminals 110 with different services depending upon thedemand for specific services. Business intelligence 1712 may also beused to select advertising presented on media display device 238 (FIG.2A).

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating another system 1800 inaccordance with the disclosure. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG.18, one or more terminals (employee access nodes) 1810 are located in afactory or similar facility 1802 where a significant number ofemployees, for example 50, 100, 200, 300 or more are employed. Employeeaccess nodes 1810 are substantially similar to terminals 110 describedin connection with FIG. 1 and may be configured with the same hardwareand the same and additional functional features. In particular,terminals 1810 may be remotely and dynamically configured with differentservices as described in connection with terminals 110. As illustrated,terminals 1810 are interfaced with a local service processor 1804. Adatabase 1806 associated with local service processor 1804 is maintainedon a data storage device 1807 and contains selected informationregarding employees as set forth in detail below. Specifically, datastored on database 1806 may include a record with employee earnings fora current pay period that have not been remitted to the employee. Forexample, if the pay period is two weeks, after which an employee isgiven a check for his or her earnings, and an employee has worked oneweek into the pay period, the record of the amount of earnings due tothe employee for the week he or she has worked and not yet been paid(accrued earnings) may be recorded in database 1806. In many instances,an employer may pay an employee on a delayed basis, for example theemployee may be paid for pay accrued during a pay period, a week orother predetermined interval after the end of the pay period.

A distinction should be made for “users” to the system disclosed withrespect to FIG. 18 and one for the system. In general, when a user walksup to any terminal, whether it be the terminals 1810 within acorporation associated with the local server processor 1804 or terminals110 located anywhere outside of the facility 1802, authentication isrequired of that user. Thus, a “user” can be a user for the entiresystem or a user only for the facility 1802. Once a user enters profileinformation and biometric information such as information associatedwith a palm vein scanner or personal ID information, this will provideinformation that is useful to authenticate a user when they walk up toany terminal 110 or terminal 1810. However, the user can have twodifferent identities in the system. They can have an identity as anoverall system user, i.e., a profile stored at the central officeprocessor or they can have an identity for use only within the facility1802. It could be that there is a general profile associated with auser. In the concept of having a general user system ID, it could bethat authentication of a user will require interface with the centraloffice processor 1814 in FIG. 18 that provides an overall system ID forthe user. Thus, there will be a profile associated with that userconstituting, in part, of biometric information for the user that can beutilized to authenticate the user with their system ID. This system IDcan then be utilized if the user ventures outside of the facility 1802for the purpose of using their personal ATM information. Within thefacility 1802, as will be described hereinbelow, there will beinformation that is desirable to remain within the facility. Forexample, within the facility, it may be that the overall system user IDis stored in a relational database associated with an employee numberand employee records. The associated profile information that is storedat the central office processor 1814 database 1816 could be duplicatedat the local service processor 1804 in the database 1806. Thus, the usercould, at the terminal 1810, enter their palm vein scan information tobe authenticated, which could be completely authenticated by the localservice processor using information in the database 1806. The user couldeven utilize their employee number in the most simplified case, whichwould then be related to the overall system user ID for authenticationpurposes.

Referring still to FIG. 18, a record of the employee's earning for thecurrent pay period, or other predetermined period, may be obtained bymeans of an interface represented by arrow 1809 with the company'sEnterprise Resource Planning Module (ERP) 1808 module or similarcomputerized payroll records maintained by the employer, owner and/oroperator of facility 1802. In the case of employee records that areupdated on a daily basis, for example for employees that “clock” in orout according to their work schedule, an employee's pay records may beupdated and transmitted to local service processor 1804 and stored indatabase 1806 on a daily basis. In other embodiments, database 1806 maybe updated on a weekly basis or other predetermined time interval. Insome embodiments, the employee's ability to access accrued and unpaidearning will be cut off or terminated at a predetermined date (triggerdate) or time prior to the employer's regularly scheduled disbursementof earnings. For example, if the employer normally disburses pay checksor makes direct deposits of employee earnings for a given pay period ona Friday, the employee's ability to access received and unpaid earningsfor the pay period may be cut off or terminated on the Tuesday precedingthe Friday when the employer makes normally scheduled disbursements.This allows time for the employer's pay records to be updated (debited)to account for transactions made by an employee using system 1800 beforethe employer disburses earnings for the period. This may be a pull orpush operation with respect to the ERP.

Local service processor 1804 is provided with a data transmissioninterface represented by arrow 1811 with the central office processor1814. Data transmissions between the local service processor 1804 andcentral office processor 1814 may be made via a wired network such as alocal area network (LAN), the internet, a wired telephone network (POTS)or via a wireless network. In other embodiments, a cellular network maybe employed for transmissions between the local service processor 1804and central office processor 1814. Central office processor 1814 mayinclude a database 1816 for storing employee records and transactioninformation and interfaces with service providers 1820 and financialinstitutions 1822 via a private or public network 1818 such as theinternet to provide transactional services to employees of theowner/operator of facility 1802.

It will also be appreciated that local service processor 1804, database1806 and terminals 1810 may be owned and/or operated by a third party.In one embodiment, the employee may be required to register (subscribe)with his or her employer and/or the owner and/or operator of system 1800in order to utilize the system. In this embodiment, the employee may beassigned a unique personal identification number (PIN) and a biometricparameter such as a fingerprint or palm vein scan, which may be obtainedand stored on database 1806 during the registration process. This may bea local PIN or ID or a system ID as described hereinabove.

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram illustrating a transaction that may beconducted with system 1800 using a subscribing employee's accruedearnings that have not been remitted to the employee. Referring to FIGS.18 and 19 in conjunction, the process begins at step 1900 where anemployee accesses a terminal 1810 and accesses a bill pay service atstep 1902 by means of a user interface such as a touch screen, keyboardor similar device. The process continues at steps 1904 and 1906 wherethe employee enters his or her PIN and a biometric parameter such as athumbprint, fingerprint or palm vein scan, which is obtained from theemployee. In different embodiments, only a PIN or biometric parametermay be required to continue. The employee information (e.g. PIN and/orbiometric parameter) is transmitted to local service processor 1804 atstep 1908. Local service processor 1804 accesses database 1806 at step1910 to confirm the identity of the employee. If the employee's PINand/or biometric parameter are not confirmed, the process is terminatedat step 1912. Assuming that the employee data is confirmed, localservice processor 1804 may access the employee's bill pay history at1914 and display the employee's balance of accrued and unpaid earningsalong with a list of payees to the employee at step 1916. The employeemay then select a payee from the list displayed on terminal 1810 orenter a new payee at step 1918. In one embodiment, the employee may beallowed to select the amount to be paid at step 1920. In somevariations, the employee may elect to receive funds directly in whichcase the employee access node may disburse value in the form ofcurrency, a money order, a check, script, tickets or coupons to theemployees. In this embodiment, a record of the transaction may be storedon local service processor 1804.

In the authentication process, as described hereinabove, it is possiblethat the initial authentication wherein each user always has asystem-wide ID, may be performed at the central office processor 1814wherein all profile information is stored. This will provide a generalauthentication to the system and then this can be relayed back to thelocal service processor 1804 to determine if that user is alsoassociated with the facility, i.e., they are authorized to utilize theterminal within the facility for the purpose of accessing accrued funds.In this manner, all of the local pay records, employee numbers, etc.,that would be proprietary to a facility would be maintained within a“bounded” network.

Referring still to FIG. 19, at step 1922 the transaction information,i.e. the payee and amount to be paid, is transmitted to local serviceprocessor 1804 and database 1806 is accessed to determine the employee'saccrued, but unpaid earnings at step 1924. If the accrued but unpaidearnings are insufficient to pay the bill, terminal local serviceprocessor 1804 responds to terminal 1810 with an “insufficient funds” or“transaction denied” message which may be displayed to the employee atstep 1926 and the transaction is terminated at step 1928. In differentembodiments, a threshold limit on the amount of funds that the employeemay access and utilize with system 1800 may be set. The threshold amountcould be a percentage of accrued but unpaid earnings, for example 40% or60% or could be a set amount of currency, for example $200.00.

At step 1930, the transaction information (employee ID, payee, amount,etc.) is transmitted to central office processor 1814, which records thetransaction on database 1816. The employee's records are updated onlocal service processor 1804 and database 1806 to reflect thetransaction at step 1932. Central office processor 1814 accesses a billpay service at step 1934 which in turn accesses a payment service atstep 1936 as previously described in connection with FIG. 15. At step1938, the bill pay service accesses a bill pay gateway to connect with apublic or private financial network at step 1940 after which the fundsare electronically disbursed to the payee at step 1942. The payeeconfirms the transaction at step 1944 and a message is transmittedthrough networks 1812 and 1818, central office processor 1814 and localservice processor 1804 to terminal 1810 where a receipt may be printedor displayed to the employee at step 1946. In this operation, value isfirst determined as being available to an employee as “virtual funds”and then a desired amount “transferred” from the virtual funds forpayment of the bill or for any other transaction.

Referring again to FIG. 18, system 1800 including local serviceprocessor 1804, database 1806, terminals 1810 and central officeprocessor 1814 may be owned and/or operated by a third party. In thisembodiment, the third party may charge the employee a fee for providingbill pay or other services such as pay advances for accrued but unpaidearnings. The third party operator of system 1800 also aggregates thecost of services, for example bill pay services and advances toemployees over a predetermined period and bills the owner and/oroperator of facility 1802 for funds dispersed by or received byemployees during the period. For example, if the owner/operator offacility 1802 distributes paychecks on alternate Fridays, the thirdparty may bill the owner/operator of facility 1802 on the Wednesdayspreceding the Friday on which the employer disburses paychecks to itsemployees. Accrued earning spent or received by employees may then bededucted from their paychecks for the pay period by the employer. Thethird party absorbs the risk of authentication errors or fraud and thecosts for all financial advancements to a user/employee.

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram illustrating another transaction that may beconducted with system 1800 using an employee's accrued earnings thathave not been remitted to the employee. Referring to FIGS. 18 and 20 inconjunction, the process begins at step 2000 when an employee accessesterminal 1810. At steps 2004 and 2006, the employee enters his or herPIN number and/or a biometric parameter. The employee information istransmitted to local service processor 1804 which accesses database 1806to confirm the employee's status (e.g. currently employed) and identityat step 2006. If the employee's identity and/or status cannot beconfirmed at step 2008, the transaction is terminated at step 2010.

Referring still to FIG. 20, at step 2012 the employee may select aservice, in this case an advance of funds 2014 based on earningsaccrued, but not yet disbursed to the employee. Assuming that theemployee's identity is confirmed, at step 2016 a display is presented tothe employee whereby the employee may select an amount to be advanced.The screen may also include a fee associated with the advance to enablethe employee to terminate the transaction if he or she does not wish toproceed. The transaction data is transmitted to local service processor1804 at step 2018 and the employee's records are accessed on database1806 at step 2020 to determine whether the employee has sufficientaccrued earnings to allow for the selected advance amount. If theaccrued but unpaid earnings are insufficient, e.g. less than therequested advance, or if the requested advance exceeds a predeterminedthreshold amount, for example 50% of the employee's accrued but unpaidearnings, local service processor 1804 responds to terminal 1810 with an“insufficient funds” or “transaction denied” message which may bedisplayed to the employee at step 2022 and the transaction terminated atstep 2024.

Assuming that the employee has sufficient accrued unpaid earnings, atstep 2026, the requested advance is dispensed to the employee. Theadvance may be dispensed in the form of currency, a money order, a checkor a stored value card such as a debit card. The employee's records ondatabase 1806 are then updated to reflect the advance at step 2028 alongwith a fee for the service. Terminal 1810 may then print or display areceipt for the transaction to the customer at step 2030, after whichthe transaction is terminated at step 2032. Advances to employees maythen be aggregated at predetermined intervals on local service processor1804 such that the employer may be billed for the advances, (and othercharges incurred by employees) at predetermined intervals, typicallybefore the end of the employer's normal pay period so that any advancesor charges may be deducted from the employee's accrued earnings beforethe employee is paid at the end of the pay period, such that theadvanced amount can be deducted from the employee's pay for that payperiod.

Referring again to FIG. 18, in one embodiment, a portable wireless pointof sale device 1824 such as a tablet-type computer may interface withsystem 1800 to enable employees to purchase items from mobile vendors,for example from food service vendors that typically travel apredetermined route with a truck equipped with food service items withperiodic stops along the route. In one embodiment, device 1824 isremotely and dynamically configurable from central office processor 1814via a wireless interface 1826 to enable or disable services on thedevice. Device 1824 is configured to interface with local serviceprocessor 1804 via a wired or wireless data link 1828. Device 1824 mayinclude a touch screen GUI, a receipt printer, a card reader and similarhardware suitable for use for a portable point of sale device. In thisembodiment, it is assumed that system 1800 is operated by a third partythat may provide devices 1824 to vendors as well as operating andmaintaining local service processor 1804 and database 1806.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method using a wireless point ofsale device with system 1800. The process begins at step 2100 where amobile vendor operating, for example, a food service catering vehicle,stops at a predetermined location along his or her route in or adjacentto facility 1802. At step 2102, an employee selects food items suppliedby the vendor, for example a hamburger and a soft drink. At step 2104,the employee enters a biometric parameter such as a thumb or fingerprint using device 1824 and/or a PIN number. In the case where only aPIN number is used, it may be entered by the vendor.

At step 2106, device 1824 transmits the employee biometric parameter orPIN to local service processor 1804 to confirm the employee's identityat step 2108. If the employee's identity is not confirmed, thetransaction is terminated at step 2110. Depending upon the number ofemployees serviced by the vendor and the data storage capacity of device1824, the employee PIN data or biometric parameter of the employee maybe stored on the device. In some embodiments it may be desirable tocheck the employee's accrued earnings balance via wireless interface1826 with local service processor 1804 depending upon the size of thetransaction. In other embodiments, wherein the amount is less than apredetermined threshold, for example $5.00 or $10.00, it may be deemedunnecessary to check the employee's accrued earnings balance.

Referring still to FIG. 21, the purchased items are provided to theemployee at step 2112 and a record of the transaction is stored ondevice 1824. After a predetermined period, for example 4, 8, 12, 24hours, the aggregated transactions at step 2114 are transmitted to localservice processor 1804 at step 2116. (However, this could be a real-timeprocess.) The employee's record of accrued earnings that have not beendispersed are updated at step 2118 on data base 1806. At step 2120, theoperator of system 1800 pays the vendor for the items purchased by theemployee. The operator of system 1800 then bills the employer for theitems purchased by employees at step 2122 after which the employerupdates employee pay records by debiting the employee's pay for the payperiod with the purchases at step 2124 and the process ends at step2126.

Device 1824 may also be configured with different service modules toenable employees to conduct transactions other than the purchase ofgoods. For example, device 1824 may be configured with service modulesto allow an employee to pay a utility telephone bill, make a fundsdeposit or transfer funds utilizing accrued unpaid earnings. Thus, anemployee could purchase food items for lunch and then pay his or hertelephone bill utilizing services loaded onto device 1824. In theseembodiments, the operator of system 1800 will typically charge theemployee a nominal fee for providing the services. The fee will be addedto an amount debited from the employee's accrued and unpaid earningsalong with the cost of the goods or services. In other embodiments, thevendor or recipient of funds advanced against the employee's accrued butunpaid earnings may be charged a fee for the service.

Referring now to FIG. 18A, there is illustrated a diagrammatic view ofthe system utilizing a PDA, which is a portable terminal in effect. ThePDA (Portable Digital Assistant) is designated with a reference numeral1878. PDA 1878 is a typical stand-alone PDA or a PDA that functions as atelephone. These are sometimes referred to as “smart telephones.” Theyhave associated therewith a fairly sophisticated processor that canprocess various applications in addition to a modem for effecting avoice call. There are a number of different data communication linksthat can be provided with the PDA 1878. One can be through the datamodem that allows access to the phone service provider, or aconventional 802.11 WAP connection could be provided. In the embodimentdisclosed within the facility 1802, the WAP connection would bepreferred as this provides a connection to a hub 1876 disposed withinthe facility 1802, which interfaces with an internal network 1880. Thisinternal network 1880 is interfaced with the local service processor1804. Therefore, through the WAP connection, the PDA 1878 can interfacewith the local service processor 1804.

PDA 1878 is a device that basically parallels the operation of aterminal with the exception that there are a restricted number ofresources. In this embodiment, the resources are a display 1882, whichis a touch screen display that can be manipulated with a pointing device1883, an optical scanner 1884, a fingerprint scanner 1886 and a camera1888. As such, a user can access all functions associated with theterminal 1810 that require nothing more than a display, a biometricinput and possibly an optical scanning input. Additionally, the camera1888 could be utilized to provide a “face scan” if such wereappropriate.

On the PDA 1878, there will be stored various applications. Theseapplications can be downloaded for various functions. One of theapplications will be a “terminal” application that emulates one of theterminals 1810. This operates substantially similar to that describedhereinabove in that certain service modules, sessions modules/managers,etc., are downloaded to the PDA 1878. When this application is operatingon the PDA 1878, the PDA 1878 will be able to provide a heartbeat to thelocal service processor 1804 to define the availability thereof forupdates and the such. Typically, the PDA 1878 will have a fixedconfiguration that will be associated with the model, etc. Upon initialset-up, the application is loaded and the then the model number of thePDA 1878 is entered to define the overall external resourceconfiguration associated therewith. Thereafter, biometric informationcan be input to the system in addition to some ID information. This IDinformation could actually be associated with the download such thatthat every download has a unique ID associated therewith. Thus, when PDA1878 collects all of the user information, it can then transmit this tothe local service processor 1804 (and subsequently to the central officeprocessor 1814, if appropriate) and then periodically contact the localservice processor 1804 or central office processor 1814 for updates.

When a session is initiated, the user could access a service module,such as bill pay, and complete a transaction utilizing the display 1882.Another type of transaction utilizing the display could be to transfermoney from accrued and unpaid funds to an acquaintance or family memberin a different country. In this type of transaction, money would betransferred from the employee's account to a remote location byaccessing the funds and then providing a “code” for the transfer. Thiscode would be displayed to the user at the completion of thetransaction. Typically, these funds would be transmitted to a companysuch as Western Union® or some such facility and they would be availablefor any one that presents the code to a Western Union® office. The codewould be displayed on the display at the end of the transaction and thenthe user can contact a recipient by making a phone call or even emailingsuch a code to the recipient. In fact, part of the financial transactioncould be the emailing operation.

In another transaction, the system may be set up such that a menu itemin the company cafeteria could be selected and paid for by the user byfirst using the optical scanner 1884 to scan some menu to select theitems they want to pay for and then completing the transaction,receiving some type of code or confirmation on the display. This code orconfirmation could be a number or it could actually be a barcode on thedisplay. The barcode could be presented to a cashier and the cashiercould scan this barcode for completion of the transaction.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure that the transaction system described herein provides adynamically configurable system including terminals, which may beconfigured to provide a wide variety of services based on selectedcriteria. It should be understood that the drawings and detaileddescription herein are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than arestrictive manner, and are not intended to be limiting to theparticular forms and examples disclosed. On the contrary, included areany further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions,alternatives, design choices, and embodiments apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scopehereof, as defined by the following claims. Thus, it is intended thatthe following claims be interpreted to embrace all such furthermodifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives,design choices, and embodiments.

1. A distributed transaction system for enabling users to conductfinancial transactions using services from third party serviceproviders, the system including: a plurality of kiosks, each of thekiosks including a processing platform running an operating system and aplurality of physical system resources including: at least one or moreuser interfaces enabling a user to access selected ones of the servicesavailable through the kiosk to facilitate a financial transactioninitiated by a user of the system; a data store for storingconfiguration information for distributed financial transaction servicesavailable to a user from the kiosk, wherein configuration informationfor each available service further includes information for interfacingwith the necessary physical system resources required to enable a userto interface with a selected one of the available services, wherein theconfiguration information for a selected service identifies the physicalresources required to conduct the financial transaction, and; aplurality of physical system resource hardware interfaces enabling theoperating system to interface with the required ones of the physicalsystem resources to execute a predetermined series of actions defined bythe configuration information that enable a user access to a selectedservice through the required physical system resources for the selectedavailable service; and a central processing center including a firstcommunications interface with the kiosk whereby the central processingcenter can communicate independently with each of the kiosks to remotelyenable or disable selected ones of the physical system resourcesrequired to access ones of the available services.
 2. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the central processing center includes one or moresecond communications interfaces whereby the central processing centercan download configuration information from one or more serviceproviders to enable one or more services on selected ones of the kiosksand whereby the configuration information is transmitted to selectedones of the kiosks that identifies the physical system resourcesrequired to perform a predetermined series of actions required to accessone or more services provided by the service provider.
 3. The system ofclaim 2 wherein the central processing center communicates with selectedones of the kiosks to remotely enable or disable selected ones of theservices based upon predetermined criteria.
 4. The system of claim 3wherein the predetermined criteria is the number of transactionsconducted by users utilizing selected ones of the kiosks over apredetermined time period.
 5. The system of claim 3 wherein thepredetermined criteria is the value of transactions conducted by usersutilizing selected ones of the kiosks over a predetermined time period.6. The system of claim 3 wherein the predetermined criteria is thecalendar date or date(s).
 7. The system of claim 3 wherein thepredetermined criteria is the time or time(s) of day.
 8. The system ofclaim 1 wherein a physical resource is a display and wherein the kioskis operative to display branding indicia associated with a user selectedservice.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein each kiosk includes acommunications resource for communicating with the central processingcenter and wherein each kiosk transmits a message at predeterminedperiodic intervals to the central processing center including the statusof physical system resources available to the kiosk.
 10. The system ofclaim 1 wherein each kiosk includes a communications resource forcommunicating with the central processing center and wherein each kiosktransmits a message to the central processing center at predeterminedperiodic intervals including the services enabled on the kiosk.
 11. Adistributed transaction system for enabling users to conduct financialtransactions using services from third party service providers, thesystem including: a plurality of kiosks, each of the kiosks including aprocessing platform running an operating system and a plurality ofphysical system resources including: at least one or more userinterfaces enabling a user to access selected ones of the servicesavailable through the kiosk to facilitate a financial transactioninitiated by a user of the system; a data store for storingconfiguration information for distributed financial transaction servicesavailable to a user from the kiosk, wherein configuration informationfor each available service further includes information for interfacingwith the necessary physical system resources required to enable a userto interface with a selected one of the available services, wherein theconfiguration information for a selected service identifies the physicalresources required to conduct the financial transaction; a plurality ofphysical system resource hardware interfaces enabling the operatingsystem to interface with the required ones of the physical systemresources to execute a predetermined series of actions defined by theconfiguration information that enable a user access to a selectedservice through the required physical system resources for the selectedavailable service; a central processing center including a firstcommunications interface with the kiosks whereby the central processingcenter can communicate independently with each of the kiosks to remotelyenable or disable selected ones of the physical system resourcesrequired to access ones of the available services; and wherein thekiosks are operative to facilitate at least one first user action withthe physical system resources to initiate the financial transaction andthe central processing center is operative to execute at least a secondaction to facilitate the financial transaction and to communicate with afinancial institution that executes a third action to conduct thefinancial transaction.